This Site

TIDBITS by RALPH SHEALY

IF THE SHOE SPLITS

So much was made of the Duke-North Carolina game. Tickets were going for $2500 each. Everyone wanted to see Duke’s Zion Williamson take on the Tar Heels at home. Even President Obama wrangled a ticket somehow, Then, 36-seconds into the game, Zion planted his foot while making a move, and his expensive shoes split, and he went down, spraining his knee. He would not return, and for all practical purposes, the game was over. UNC won going away. It reminded me of when Mike Tyson was in his prime and people paid a fortune to watch his fights on pay for view. I think one of his fights lasted something like six seconds. After the shoe split, Nike stock plunged a billion dollars. I guarantee you the canvas Converse All-Stars shoes I wore playing for Saluda High in the Dark Ages would not split. Of course, I was 5-11 and weighed 130-lbs. back then. Zion is 6-7 and weighs 285. That’s a lot of weight to put on a shoe in a sports’ event. Many of us have had shoe blowouts. I’ve written about the time I dug out some old sneakers I hadn’t worn in years and decided wear them on a walk. About 100-yards down the path, I suddenly felt shorter. I looked down to see the soles of my shoes, both of them, had blown out. It was that day I learned shoe rubber will eventually rot. I was lucky that I was at home. My sister Elizabeth was at work at Newberry Hospital when the soles of her old shoes she hadn’t worn in years rotted away. She got a pair of those shoe covers doctors and nurses wear in the operating room and wore those the rest of the day. After Zion’s mishap, many sports’ pundits urged him not to play anymore this season. They didn’t want him to get a more serious injury, hurting his pro career. That would really be a slap in the face to his school, coach and teammates, even though he is a one and done. Sure, Carolina’s Deebo Samuel skipped the Gamecock bowl game, but his team was 7-5, playing in a bowl that had no consequence. Zion came to Duke to win the national championship. Coach K says Zion will play once he comes back from his minor knee injury. Good. Of course, Zion left Spartanburg to play for Duke. Another state escapee Devonte Shuler returned to his hometown of Columbia last week, as a member of the Ole Miss team. Before the game, Devonte tweeted, “I want everybody in my hometown to come out to Colonial Life Arena tonight and watch why I made the right decision in going to Ole Miss over South Carolina...” Carolina won 79-64, so apparently he chose Ole Miss because he wanted the Rebels to lose to the Gamecocks. Naturally, his tweet was retweeted many times by Gamecock fans. When will people learn tweets are not erasable?! Oh, you can delete them, but someone has already saved it, for sure.

UNREAL....

Meghan Markel wrote a personal letter to her father, and nicely asked him to stop making negative comments about her marriage to Prince Harry. What does this loving daddy do? He sold the letter to a newspaper. How can a person possibly get any lower? Meghan’s half sister is almost as bad. These two are going to be constant sores on the Royal Family. Then there’s the Jussie Smollett story. I don’t have to repeat it. If you haven’t heard the story about the “Empire” actor’s alleged attack, you have been on a deserted island the last three weeks. The first time I heard Smollett’s story, I didn’t believe it. Of course, I have been skeptical of things like this since Susan Smith killed her children. For days, our hearts broke for tearful Susan and her husband. Then, the Union County sheriff held a press conference and said Susan had been arrested for the murder of her two sons. I can still hear the gasp from the crowd. Now, when a husband comes on TV begging for his wife’s return, I say, “He did it.” In most cases, “He did it.” The thing that bothered me most in Smollett’s case is he tried to blame it on Trump supporters. Let’s see of show of hands of Trump supporters who have ever watched “Empire,” or even heard of the TV show. How many Trump supporters have ever heard of Smollett, and how many of them walk around Chicago at 2 a.m. carrying a rope and a bottle of Clorox, and manage to attack someone out of range of hundreds of video cameras? I watch “Entertainment Tonight” every night. I subscribe to “Entertainment Weekly” and “T.V. Guide,” and I am totally honest when I say I had never heard of Smollett, nor watched “Empire.” I’ve heard of the program, of course, and its main stars. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty. It would be better for all concerned, if Smollett is telling the truth. If he tried to use an “alleged” lynching to get a bigger paycheck, then he’s right up there with Meghan’s father.

CAROL

I was so sad when I learned of the passing of Carol Williams. Carol and I have been good friends for nearly 30 years. Our association began when the Saluda County Chamber of Commerce was reorganized in the early 1990’s. I was the first president, and Carol was hired are our executive secretary. It was Carol who made the Chamber work. She was always positive and had a smile on her face. I posted on Facebook one of my many memories of Carol. I wrote in my column how cows were not my favorite animals, due to my growing up on a dairy farm. Not long after the paper came out, Carol walked into the Sentinel office and handed me a house plant in a cow vase! That’s the kind of person she was. Carol had many bouts with cancer. She won most of them. What great courage and positive determination she displayed. I’m going to speak at Carol’s memorial service Saturday, so I’ll limit my comments here. I sure will miss her. I was also saddened to learn of the passing of Horace Bouknight. When I got the papers printed in Lexington, he was at the Circle convenience store with the other regulars, almost every Tuesday afternoon when I arrived. Since we moved to getting papers printed in Greenwood, I deliver at the Circle around lunchtime, so I haven’t seen him. I did not know until I read his obituary that he was the father of Mendi Tucker, a well known educator, is our area. My sympathy to his family.